A few good reasons to remember Pablo Neruda today
By Jawed Naqvi
Monday,JUNE 11,2007
THERE was a time when Indian poets and writers would be engaged with Indian issues as closely as they were involved with the rest of the world. The heart-rending cry against capitalism of Majaaz in his poem
“Sarmaayadaari” of the 1930s had a universality that Iqbal had earlier leaned on to berate imperialism. On the face of it, it may appear that Iqbal was hostile to the West. However, his concerns were really riveted to the exploitation of the weak and the poor. For example, he says:
“Europe’s hordes, with flame and fire
Desolate the world entire;
O architect of yonder realms,
To rebuild the world arise!
Out of leaden sleep
Out of slumber deep
Arise!
Out of slumber deep,
Arise!” Zabur-i-Ajam (Persian Psalms)
In the Urdu-Hindi tradition of poetry and prose writing, as with other Indian languages, there was concern for practically every raging issue of the time regardless of which corner of the world the subject belonged to. From the massacre of Vietnam (Sardar Jaafri, Niaz Haider) to the plight of the Palestinians (Faiz) to Apartheid and Fascism, every thing was up for scrutiny and comment. It may sound sadly absurd today, but there was a time when popular sentiment in the newly-freed colonies of South Asia was one of suspicion of the British Commonwealth. It was thus that Majrooh Sultanpuri declared Pandit Nehru an agent of imperialism, all because Nehru thought it was a good idea to take India into the Commonwealth. Majrooh’s poem became a popular refrain for many an Indian street-fighter. “Commonwealth ka daas hai Nehru; maar lo saathi, jaane na paaye!” the poet thundered.
Majrooh was a leading member of the left-dominated Progressive Writers Association apart from being a popular song writer for movies. He also wrote a moving tribute to the people of Pakistan who were at that time locked in a grim battle with Ayub Khan’s martial law. In powerful words that echoed the 16th Century sufi poet Kabir, Majrooh enthused masses across the border thus:
“Jalaa ke mishal-i- jaa’n, hum junoo’n sifaat chaley!
Jo ghar ko aag lagaae hamaare saath chaley!!
Sutoon-i-daar par rakhte chalo saro’n ke chiraagh!
Jahaa’n talak ye sitam ki siyaah raat chale!!”
Somehow, today when a dozen or more citizens are killed in Karachi or elsewhere in Pakistan and thousands others are braving the scorching heat to battle dictatorial laws on the nation’s streets, there doesn’t seem to be a memorable line or verse from anybody in India that we have heard of, be it against Pakistan’s current military rule or about MQM’s self-destructive violence against fellow Pakistanis. Similarly, Iraq has been raped, and continues to bleed to a painful death. Let us know if there is a verse or a poem that was missed on this tragedy from a known writer or poet in South Asia. Therefore, clearly there was once an open fellowship between South Asians, more so between Indians and Pakistanis in their difficult times in the past. Ayub Khan’s reign of terror triggered a wave of solidarity in India for fellow Pakistanis who fought him. That empathy is somehow missing today.
There could be several reasons for this change, but one that comes to mind is the utter confusion in the opposition’s ranks in Pakistan about their aims and objectives. And given the nature of the dominant media in both countries, there is a tendency not to explain the rush for democracy in Pakistan and the apparent obsession, of practically everyone who is opposed to Gen Musharraf, with free and fair elections. A question that is seldom asked: Is there an anti-imperialist edge to the public outcry against Gen Musharraf’s regime or is there a critique of the neo-con economic policies being pursued by his government. There is a genuine fear that everyone in Pakistan, barring obviously the mullahs, ironically enough, is ready to do genuflection before the most powerful military power regardless of the fact that it is playing havoc in Iraq and Afghanistan. Is there a critique of America’s shadow over Pakistan from within the ranks of say the PPP or the Nawaz Sharif group? It doesn’t seem so. And it was certainly not the case when these groups were in power during their brief tenures. The picture in Pakistan was perhaps clearer in the battle against Ayub Khan, a factor in the more vocal support that came from ideologically driven corners around the world, and certainly so from India of that period, for those who fought him.
But India too has chosen to go down the tube. There was a time when this country’s word counted among the Third World nations. India was a major leader when it advocated non-alignment, not as a namby-pamby idea for passive aloofness but for an active opposition to big power exploits everywhere in the world. Sixteen years ago India abandoned all that and took a sharp turn to the right. It hasn’t worked to our advantage. Last week, the Indian prime minister returned empty-handed and apparently annoyed from a G-8 summit in Germany. And though Dr Manmohan Singh blamed the format of the summit for his ‘irritation’ which didn’t accord him a proper forum to discuss India’s perspectives, there was a hint in the Indian Express that he may not go to another G-8 meeting if things don’t improve.Well, the prime minister should have taken a stroll out of the secure precincts of the summit venue and met with the protestors who had different ideas on a variety of issues discussed or not discussed inside. They too were deprived of a platform to be heard by the super-rich nations. Dr Singh would have found an immediate affinity and perhaps even an audience among the angry Europeans, because despite India’s recent efforts to abandon the left-liberal corner, its soul remains in the grip of its old humane ideals. There was a time when Pablo Neruda came to Delhi to discuss with Pandit Nehru proposals for a World Peace Congress, euphemism for solidarity against American hegemony.
If Dr Singh looked around in the crowd he would find that Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez are their idols, not any current European leader. He would find that the war on terror which he supports with such sincerity, rings hollow with people across the world. As it did on another Sept 11, (not in 2001 but in 1973) when President Nixon ordered the CIA to overthrow Salvador Allende’s government in Chile. Neruda applauds himself as a terrorist bard in this pamphlet he wrote as a moving poem at that time. And it’s well worth noting for those, in India and Pakistan as elsewhere, who are locked in a major disagreement with the policies of George W. Bush or his protégés, that very little has changed in the world since Neruda wrote the following lines in a collection of poems called: “A call for the destruction of Nixon and praise for Chilean revolution.”
“Because I love my country
I claim you, essential brother,
Old Walt Whitman with your gray hands.
So that, with your special help
Line by line, we will tear out the roots
Aand destroy the bloodthirsty President Nixon.
There can be no happy man on earth,
No one can work well on this planet
While that nose continues to breathe in Washington
Asking the old bard to confer with me
I assume the duties of a poet
Armed with a terrorist’s sonnet
Because I must carry out with no regrets
This sentence, never before witnessed,
Of shooting a criminal under siege,
Who in spite of his trips to the moon
Has killed so many here on earth
That the paper flies up and the pen is unsheathed
To set down the name of this villain
Who practises genocide from the White House.”
How many poets or intellectuals or for that matter politicians in India or Pakistan are willing to arm themselves with the “terrorist’s sonnet”? Let’s look for them. Neruda’s 103rd birthday falls on July 12, a good time as any to redeem the old pledge.
jawednaqvi@gmail.com
http://www.dawn.com/weekly/jawed/jawed.htm